Does America Hate the Poor? The Other American Dilemma: Lessons for the 21st Century from the 1960s and the 1970s

Indeed, in Michael Harrington ( 1962) book, The Other America, a section
entitled "Our Invisible Poor" points out that it is very difficult, at least using
public, face-to-face criteria, to separate the poor from the rest of us. We hate
them for reminding us they are not like us (and that someday--any day--we
may not be like us either). We hate them and fear them for reminding us that
they are us after we lose a job, or become ill, or "something happens." The
similarities may scare us as much as the contrast. After all, there, but for the
grace of God. . . ."

CONCLUSION

These ten mechanisms are the vehicles for how America hates the poor: (1)
the problem of values dualism, (2) the threat of subdominant values, (3) the
stress on mobility and youth in American society, (4) America's hatred of
"dependency," (5) our ability to blame the victim, (6) the use of slippery and
ambiguous language, (7) the application of disengagement and ghettoization,
(8) the relegation of the poor to peripheral statuses, (9) the application of
social policy to the poor, and (10) the presence of disesteem and stigma.
Certainly, these interact and support each other, each strand strengthening
the choking social rope.

I do not think that there is much question that America hates the poor.
Some readers may quibble about the word "hate," and argue for something
softer. Others will argue, "Well, there are exceptions--this group and that
group," and in that process engage in "categorizing the poor," something we
have done for hundreds of years seeking to create "exempt" categories of
groups who are poor but okay.

But even if one accepts the general ideas that we hate and fear the poor--
perhaps especially if one accepts it--questions pop up. How can we understand this? If we hate the poor, why do we spend so much to help "them." Are
there, or is it too bizarre to consider, positive functions to hate? Perhaps the
poor are always with us because we need them.

One could add the principle of vegetablization, one step below that of
animalization. In vegetablization, as in the phrase, "He is just a vegetable now," the
distinction between life and death has been finessed. After all, you cannot really kill a
carrot.

The word "social" itself has multiple meanings. One is collective, the social
good; another is interactive, as in "social disease"; a third seems to refer to stratification, deprivation, and status poverty, as in "social problem"; and then, of course, there
is "social policy."

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: Does America Hate the Poor?The Other American Dilemma: Lessons for the 21st Century from the 1960s and the 1970s.
Contributors: John E. Tropman - Author.
Publisher: Praeger Publishers.
Place of publication: Westport, CT.
Publication year: 1998.
Page number: 15.

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